Google Flights. From my moderately sized east coast city, I can fly to Tokyo for $839 in cattle class with one stop, 16.5 going and 18 back. If you are not beholden to specific dates, you can snag some absolutely flamazing international deals. (Although you do have to check for things like “price doesn’t include…

I enjoy the “live like a local experience.” I travel solo and stay with local people, rather than getting an entire apartment to myself. I landed three days in a little nook in an apartment in Paris, whose owner had a cat that approved of my presence - total cost $80. A similar nook in Budapest that was one room away…

In this particular case, it was the content that sent up the red flag - lengthy paragraphs going on and on about this person’s wonderful customer service skills. The first couple that came in, we were like “hey good job!” and then when it kept happening, I got suspicious - especially because this person already had a…

We fired someone who wrote multiple surveys for himself, with spoofed IP addresses.

I only have a photo of one of them - I gave this one to my mom, and took it back after she died. The other is with someone else.

Currywurst and fresh cut fries in Düsseldorf from a stand where the *locals* lined up... om nom.

I loved the concept of the written language so much that I made a couple pieces of artwork based on it - a large steel ring with silk leaves and flowers wrapped partially around it, mimicking the splatters.

SERIOUSLY. One of the best meals I ever had was a chicken sandwich from a food truck in La Romana at 4am, sitting on a folding chair and leaning over so the juices dripped in the gutter. Mighta been five bucks at most.

Why would I blow $600 on a pretentious gold-covered steak when I could blow $500 on airfare to Europe and $100 on a nice meal there?

I have joked more than once that my particular brand of anxiety has PRIMED me for this. I am not unaffected, but my brain spends enough time at Defcon 2 that this isn’t a whole lot worse than business as usual, in terms of my ability to function and continue as a regular human being without freaking out.

Execute them.

I heeeeear ya. I was told I’d be 5'10+, but I started puberty really early and quit growing when it finished. But I’m also built like a linebacker (aka “less feminine, more freakish”) with a lot of natural presence and it makes me appear taller to people for some reason. It’s easier to relax around tall men because…

I was a little older than you guys, but my favorite YA book of this variety (angsty teenagers learning how to drive their bodies and the awkwardness of young sex) was “Virgins” by Caryl Rivers, which I found for about a dollar at the used book store. My best friend and I quoted it at each other for years. I was…

I’m 5'8 and have been since I was 14 and in a school full of lil Sicilian-American guys that weren’t even eye level with me until junior year. I come from a family that STARTS at 5'10 and averages at 6'2. I am wholly predisposed to like tall men. It is not a deal breaker - I’ve dated a couple guys close to my height…

Can Lindsey even still sing? I saw his solo tour not long before his stint in the hospital, and I thought I’d read his vocal cords might have been permanently damaged.

I had a PSL from a local coffee shop that had actual pumpkin in it and it was pretty good. I’m not sure what it is about Starbucks’ version that turns me off - maybe it’s the syrup?

I am not opposed to pumpkin spice anything, but Starbucks’ PSL is far too ghastly sweet - yet the cold brew is fantastic.

Speaking of the firmness of peaches, about 10 years ago my aunt and uncle brought me a flat of Carolina peaches from a farmers market that were very small, but so soft and so juicy that I had to eat them over the sink.

Where’s the kaboom?

The lion still got him in the end. Addiction is rough.